Cafe Duran

Background

Cafe Duran is Panama’s largest coffee producer. In 2004
the company began an expansion process which included
planting thousands of acres of new coffee plants. A new
state-of-the-art beneficio was also built to dry the coffee,
and it is projected that this new facility will process 700
tons of coffee each year.In Panama it is still common for drying facilities to use
wood as the source of fuel. This is problematic because a
consistent level of heat cannot be guaranteed, and burning
wood is harmful to the environment in terms of carbon
dioxide emissions and deforestation. This was the motivation
for the company to explore a secondary drying option,
and the SolarWall®
technology met all their requirements
in terms of being able to deliver a consistent supply of energy
from a clean source.

Solution

The SolarWall®
solar drying system, totaling 900 m2
(9670
ft2
) was installed on two roof sections of the new drying
facility. The coffee is processed in two stages; first in
mechanical dryers, then in storage silos, where additional
heat is added to complete the drying process.
The Low Roof SolarWall® section provide 40,000 cfm of
solar heated air to the first oven for the vertical coffee
dryers. The High Roof SolarWall®
section provide 20,000
cfm of solar heated air to the heated coffee storage silos.The solar system works in conjunction with a traditional
wood drying system, with the SolarWall®
being used
during the day, and wood at night. Solar drying remains
the preferred energy source at Café Duran since it supplies
heat at a temperature that will not burn or harm the
coffee beans. As well, the system provides free heating
now and for decades to come.